Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation, 1974–1987

New
Paperback
2017
$13.63

This compelling account of a turbulent period in the history of the BBC opens at a time of national decline under the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and ends during Margaret Thatcher's iconoclastic Conservative premiership. The intervening years saw mass unemployment, trade union strikes and war in Northern Ireland and the Falklands - as well as legendary BBC programmes such as Live Aid, Fawlty Towers and Dad's Army, The Singing Detective and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and David Attenborough's Life on Earth. Comprehensively revised and expanded for this new edition, Jean Seaton's perceptive study presents an absorbing analysis of an institution that both reflects Britain and has helped to define it.

Synopsis

This compelling account of a turbulent period in the history of the BBC opens at a time of national decline under the Labour governments of Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, and ends during Margaret Thatcher's iconoclastic Conservative premiership. The intervening years saw mass unemployment, trade union strikes and war in Northern Ireland and the Falklands - as well as legendary BBC programmes such as Live Aid, Fawlty Towers and Dad's Army, The Singing Detective and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and David Attenborough's Life on Earth. Comprehensively revised and expanded for this new edition, Jean Seaton's perceptive study presents an absorbing analysis of an institution that both reflects Britain and has helped to define it.

$13.63

Save:$3.48 (20%)

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
Edition: Main
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 09 Feb 2017
ISBN 10: 1781252726
ISBN 13: 9781781252727
Book Overview: A dramatic and revealing history of the BBC during some of its most turbulent and testing years - now fully revised

Media Reviews

Not the least of this very readable book's main virtues is that it tells us so much about the country that created the BBC as well as the public service broadcaster itself ... a book that is both hugely entertaining and wise. -- Chris Patten * Financial Times *
The best argument I have read in favour of the BBC. -- Nick Fraser * Observer *
This is a rich and essential history. -- Peter J. Conradi * Spectator *
Essential reading for anyone concerned, in any way, about the future of the BBC. -- Graham McCann * TLS *
[Seaton] writes in prose that would have impressed Orwell himself. Unsentimental, robust, devoid of jargon, and clear as hell, Pinkoes and Traitors demands what Orwell himself asks of us: to stand outside. Look around. Assess. And tell it like it is in an English as direct as you can. Like Orwell's work, Pinkoes and Traitors makes you walk out into the world and see the familiar anew. -- Bonnie Greer * The Independent *

Author Bio

Jean Seaton is Professor of Media History at the University of Westminster and Director of the Orwell Prize for political writing and journalism. She has written widely on broadcasting history and politics of the media (especially the BBC), as well as on news, the ways in which wars and conflicts are covered, and children and the media. She has written about and helped form media policy. Her book with James Curran, Power Without Responsibility: the Press, Broadcasting and Internet in Britain (1981), has become an international classic and is in its 7th edition. Her most recent book is Carnage and the Media: How News about Violence is Made (2006). She is a regular broadcaster and an editor of the Political Quarterly. She has three sons and lives in London.